The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
